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The Aftermath

In just over a year Scotland will hold a referendum about whether or not Scotland should become an Independent country, leaving its 300 year old union with the rest of the United Kingdom.

I should state at the outset that I am pro union and will be voting no in the referendum. But this piece is not about the pros and cons of independence, it’s about what comes after the vote.

Nobody knows what the outcome of the vote will be, but the one thing we do know is that all those who do vote either Yes or No will still be living together in Scotland the morning after.

We will have went through 2 years of increasingly bitter divisive campaigning with both sides making decisions based, at least in part, on winning this vote. I do think this has been and will increasingly become a time when Scottish politics stands still, with people frightened to take any radical stances, or decisions for fear it costs them in the referendum.

So on day one after the vote it will become vital that all parties realise they have to put their differences to one side and work together for the common good of Scotland and its people.

Our present SNP lead administration will still be the party of Government, obviously should they win the day in the referendum they should find it easy to start implementing policies designed to really help Scotland improve, instead of the populist window dressing type of policy we have seen from them so far, Free prescriptions, 1000 extra police etc. Should the vote go the other way, I understand it will be difficult for them, but they need to accept that the people do not agree with their vision, they will still have a chance to become a true party of government and not one that is using it’s time in power for the sole purpose of winning the referendum.

Whatever the outcome it gives all parties the chance for a fresh start, let’s move away from the pettiness that we see each week at First Ministers Questions, and make our Parliament something that all Scots can be proud of.

Would it be too much to ask that we consider moving away from the party politics we presently have and allow our representatives to listen to their electorate and not orders from central office.

So when the dust settles let’s hope our political leaders have the intelligence and ambition to seize this once in a lifetime opportunity to really make a difference.

This might just result in Scotland showing the rest of the UK how it’s done or failing that it might mean a majority of Scots decide they have a real basis to go their own way.

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2 thoughts on “The Aftermath”

As a potential yes voter I have to disagree that the SNP are bound to be the party of government if the yes vote prevails. My view is that no one has produced any good reason to stick with the parties of the world of big banking and housing bubbles in England. Until they do, I will believe that we can do at least as well as Denmark or Finland who have big neighbours but manage to look after themselves quite well.

Hoping that party politics will go away is pointless. You can’t have politics without parties. You can have better parties though. We can all wish for that.

My point regarding the SNP being the party in Government was purely stating a fact, following the referendum they will still have a year or so of their term to go, obviously the following election can change that.
of course Scotland could go it alone, but my post was not about the right and wrongs of that argument, it was about imo the poor standard of politician and party poltics we are burdened with and the need for all involved to think past the referendum date.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sailaway from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” ~ Mark Twain